1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that is capable of reproducing user settings, a method of controlling the same, and a storage medium, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus that is equipped with a resume function for storing settings used when the image forming apparatus was used last time, and reproducing the stored settings when the image forming apparatus is used next time.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, an image forming apparatus, such as a multifunction peripheral, has been equipped with various functions, such as a copy function, a facsimile function, a print function, and a network connection function, and operations to be performed by a user have become complicated. Particularly, an image forming apparatus installed in e.g. an office is often shared by a plurality of users, and hence, for example, if a user A has changed copy settings and then a user B uses the copy function without being aware of the changed settings, this may cause wasteful copy output instead of providing a printout desired by the user B. To solve this problem, there has been proposed an image forming apparatus equipped with an auto-clear function for automatically clearing the settings when a predetermined time period elapses after the settings are changed.
In a case where the settings are returned to the initial settings by the auto-clear function, a user is required to call up a desired setting screen from the initial menu screen of the image forming apparatus, and make the settings from the beginning. For this reason, even if settings usually used by a user are predetermined or fixed, the user has to make the same settings, which is troublesome to him/her. To solve the above-mentioned problem, there has been proposed a customization function for registering settings usually used by a user in advance, and calling up the registered settings when the user uses the image forming apparatus.
However, this function requires a user to customize the settings by himself/herself, and hence it is difficult for a user who is not familiar with the image forming apparatus to customize the settings. Therefore, a system is required which makes it possible to automatically reproduce a screen which was used by the user last time without requiring the user's instruction.
Conventionally, there has been proposed the following technique: When a plurality of functions are sequentially selected within a predetermined time period after user authentication, information on each of the functions and selection order thereof are stored in a manner associated with each user. Then, when customization information of the user is read from a customization information storage section, an initial display screen displayed for a function selected first (first ordinal rank) of the plurality of functions is read and displayed on a touch panel section (see e.g. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-273126). With this technique, a preference order of selections of functions is taken into consideration for each of a plurality of users, whereby it is possible to provide initial display screens appropriately customized on a user-by-user basis.
However, in the conventional technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2008-273126, each initial display screen is associated with a function selected first when the image forming apparatus was used last time. On the other hand, the recent image forming apparatuses are equipped with a plurality of applications.
In a box function which is provided by a storage application, an original is read and a file of a read image of the original is stored in a box. Afterwards, the user can print the file stored in the box, as required. Further, before printing, the user can designate print settings concerning output from the image forming apparatus, including page layout on a sheet, a finisher setting, such as stapling, and an image quality setting, such as density. Furthermore, by registering print settings for a file stored in the box, the user can eliminate an operation for making the print settings again when reprinting the file. However, in the image forming apparatus configured to have the box function, if the box function is displayed on the initial screen display and the print settings used when the image forming apparatus was used last time are restored on the display screen, even when the user intends to use a file different from the file in the box which was used last time, the print settings used last time are restored. In this case, the print settings different from those registered for the file which the user intends to use are sometimes restored, which requires the user to make the print settings again, and this means that the above-described conventional technique does not always contribute to improvement of user-friendliness.